Literaryswag Book Club Pick for July 2017: Scaachi Koul's One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter

This month's Literaryswag Book Club pick is Scaachi Koul's, One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of this Will Matter. That's one title. The other title, if you decide to omit what's been crossed out, is: One Day This Will Matter. I remember reading something about Basquiat's art where it was said that crossing words out was Basquiat's way to render those words more visible. If he hadn't wanted the words to be seen, he'd painted over them like he was also known for doing. It struck me when I read it, because it led me to think if Basquiat did that because he felt like the words he crossed out. If he felt that his presence, as a black man in a racist white art world, gave him a visibility he would've preferred not to have. Basquiat was obsessed with fame, and I believe it's because he thought, or hoped at least, there were lights bright enough that would show people who he was, not who they wanted him to be for their convenience. And they would have to deal. What does all this have to do with Scaachi's essay collection? More than you think. Scaachi's essays operate like the cover of her book. In every one there is an attempt, by either herself or forces larger than her--parents, culture, race, religion, gender, a seemingly form-fitting skirt--where she's being crossed out. But like Thom Yorke says on "The Eraser": "The more you try to erase me/The more that I appear." With every page, Scaachi appears more and more. We meet up Thursday, July 20th, at 7pm The Brooklyn Circus to chop it up about what we see.